My friend Katie (from our Ichauway days) has recently moved to Raleigh for a post-doc with the US Forest Service. Two weekends ago, Will was out of town for a "boys' weekend" with some buddies, so Katie, the girls, and I headed down to Southern Pines to spend a "girls' day" in the sandhills. We went to Weymouth Woods Preserve and the Boyd Tract (part of Weymouth Woods). It was a beautiful day,
and within 5 minutes of arriving / setting up our picnic lunch we were
greeted by a red-cockaded woodpecker working on his / her cavity in a
tree very close to us (and we heard probably 3 or 4 more during our afternoon hike).
We also saw the oldest living longleaf pine in the world - it has been dated to be 460+ years old!! It was both awe-inspiring and sad at the same time b/c it is on
a tract of old-growth longleaf that has been fire suppressed for
decades, but I'm sure was incredibly gorgeous way back when.
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| red-cockaded woodpecker working on his home |
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| Maggie had the camera for awhile |
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| Lilly, our fearless leader, checking the trail map |
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| grassleaf roseling, Callisia graminea (aka. Cuthbertia graminea) |
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| we saw tons of these beautiful black and blue damselflies |
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| New Jersey tea, Ceanothus americanus, in flower |
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| world's oldest living longleaf pine (Maggie didn't want to stand next to it) |
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| top of the world's oldest living longleaf pine |
